Protesting against the alt-right

[redbird]

I'd known for a while that some white supremacists/alt-right people were having a "straight pride" march in Boston today, but didn't know what if any counter-protests were planned.

This morning, adrian_turtle texted me at about 8:30 this morning, and said that she was considering going into Boston. I asked why, she described a pair of counter-protests--one at City Hall Plaza before the fascists were expected, and a more confrontational one at the Public Garden, intended to be there while the bad guys marched past. We talked a little, she said she was going to the first protest; I showered, took my morning meds (and an NSAID) and decided to go downtown.

We met at Harvard T station and went to City Hall Plaza, getting there part-way through the event. There were speeches and music and even some dancing. Adrian and I left shortly before noon, and stopped at Caffe Nero for a cup of tea and to use their bathroom. While we were there, cattitude texted to tell me he was going to the more in-their-face event, and Adrian and I decided to walk back to the Common and try to join him.

Adrian and I were going to stand back from the police barricades when the fascists walked past. Then they turned the corner onto Tremont Street, and I saw that some of them were waving Israeli flags. That upset me enough that I moved forward to the edge of the sidewalk and started shouting "Nazis out!" loudly. (I am fairly sure that I was photographed by both reporters and at least one of the right-wing marchers.)

When that was over (five minutes or so?) Adrian and I went home, and Cattitude headed up Tremont Street toward City Hall Plaza to shout at the right-wingers some more.

Sign I liked, held by someone in front of a church on Tremont Street: "We're Allies, not Axis" (with the X as a crossed-out swastika).

Moment that surprised me: we were listening to a speaker at City Hall Plaza, saying radical things I agreed with, and lots of us were cheering. Then she said something and my immediate reaction was a clenched fist in the air. (I wish I remembered what exactly prompted that.)

Comments

[redbird]

And I'm very glad we left when we did: twitter tells me that the cops started attacking anti-fascist demonstrators:

they just started beating us with bicycles. there’s nowhere to move because the crowd is too dense. the cop stopped hitting me long enough to tackle the medic standing next to me.

— molly 🐶 (@socialistdogmom) August 31, 2019

[pameladean]

Yes, I saw that and was glad I'd read your entry first. Not that I necessarily think you'll be at every protest in the Boston area, but I do always think about you and Adrian and Cattitude when there is one. And a handful of others too.

P.

[julian]

Thank you for yelling energetically. Or, rather, counter-protesting.

(I was planning to and then a conflict happened and bleh.)

[otter]

Solidarity!

[snippy]

Thank you, and I'm glad you're all safe.

[minoanmiss]

The Boston police started attacking the counterprotestors!? Why am I stupid enough to be surprised? And yet I am. And also in continuing proud awe of you and Adrian.

[redbird]

I am surprised too, fwiw.

[julian]

It does seem mildly out of character for them. (To be this blatant about it, I mean.)

My theory is that because they had so many cops in from out of town to help, they had less control over both themselves and the cops from out of town.

[anne]

I saw them setting up...looots of cops from Lowell, Waltham, and...I forget the other one, but it was another Western Mass Trump town. The Lowell cops were apparently the ones who rode motorcycles into the antifa. The bad Boston apples probably took heart from that.

[julian]

There were a bunch of folks from Amesbury and North Andover, among other places. (https://twitter.com/academicworker/status/1167899650491207680)

Anyway, so that lends credence to my theory, but it still leaves a fuck of a lot of excessive violence, and more normalization of violence for the BPD in future.

(Also, thank you for being there today, too. Er. Yesterday, rather.)

[anne]

I wasn't at the protest...I was driving a duck and being very embarrassed for the narrator. He's a sweet old guy who bought the cover story.

[minoanmiss]

nod That makes sense, and is its own kind of dismaying.

[pygment]

I heard from someone who does many protests and he says that he thinks it has to do with the Boston police having pulled cops from other districts to assist and that those districts may have more bias. He says that normally his impression of the police for protests have been really good and non-violent.

[minoanmiss]

That's useful information, thank you. :) And also both good and bad. It's disheartening how many cops in the US are so sympathetic to the fascists. But/and I don't know why I'm surprised.

[havocthecat]

I am confused. Are you saying facist neo-Nazis were waving Israeli flags?

[adrian_turtle]

Yes. It was upsetting. I think they meant to applaud the Netanyahu government and its border policies. I also saw a big float for "Blue Lives Matter" and one with "Build The Wall." It would have looked like half a block of a parade of ordinary Republicans if I hadn't known it was organized by fascists.

[redbird]

We're both confused, or they are: my best guess would be that anti-gay authoritarian right wingers were waving Israeli flags while participating in a parade organized by white supremacists.

On the other hand, I don't understand the guy who was marching with a sign saying that he was black (which I could see), gay (which I have no reason to doubt), and "not a liberal"--and apparently doesn't realize/believe that there's a political or philosophical space between socialism and gay-bashing authoritarianism. (Or maybe he got to City Hall Plaza, heard the explicitly anti-gay rhetoric from the stage, put his sign down, and left, possibly for the nearest bar.)

[catherineldf]

Thank you for showing up!

[bibliofile]

I'm glad you were able to go -- and also that you avoided getting beaten (aughhhhh!).